7 Questions on Leadership

I am honored to be interviewed by Jonno White, founder of?Clarity, a CEO coaching consultancy on 7 Questions about Leadership and sharing my leadership experiences along with 2000+ global leaders.

I thought you might find something in my answers that would resonate in your role as a leader of an enterprise, a community, a team, or even?yourself.

1. What have you found most challenging as a leader?

Finding people with the right skills to recruit is a critical challenge nowadays . Especially in today business enterprise, as their roles and requirements have broadened, the skills for business executives need from their staff have also changed. With the additional costs of hiring workers with technical prowess makes it critical to focus on retaining employees with these skills.

I also feel diversity and inclusion can provide advantages for developing strong teams with complementary skill set.

Another challenge is to ensure companies are well-positioned to capture the hard-earned growth they may have seen through 2023 and beyond. I believe that Strategic leaders must understand that businesses can’t cut costs for their way to growth; instead, they must invest deliberately and wisely. We must find the balance between spending to gain new businesses and fueling core operations to improve total shareholder return.

2. How did you become a leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

When I first started in Country Finance Director role, I was really anxious and felt I needed to prove myself to my peers and to my team. I drove really hard and wanted to do everything by understanding every detail.

I learned badly that this approach and style was so ineffective and not productive to everybody. Then I changed my management style by building strong relationships with my peers and by empowering them to make important contributions.

Since then I believe “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” When you put a motivated group of individuals together for a specific purpose, the capabilities are endless compared to going at it alone.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

I like to wake up around 5:30a.m. during the week. I usually start my exercises at least 3 times per week with focus on mixing between stretching, body weight and some of walking.

My workday typically starts 8:00 a.m. at the office. Prioritization is critical for me because I can let myself get sucked into too many issues. So, I keep a running list of all of my key priorities and of course, focus on the most urgent and important items first.

I definitely feel the most productive in the morning. So, I would spend morning time informally discussing with my subordinates to get an update on critical issues. I normally try to be very productive in any meetings and keep more free time on my calendar where I can manage my priorities more effectively.

40 percent of my time is dedicated to driving the business and making a positive impact on its performance. It is crucial for me to possess a rational understanding of financial matters when making significant business decisions. Attending meetings is essential, as it allows for active participation and the expression of impartial viewpoints within the team.

It's important to have a strong functional leader under you , and since dealing with problems takes up most of the time, it's crucial for your team to be proficient in their areas of expertise.

4. What's a recent leadership lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of?

My critical leadership lesson was during the time of COVID-19. There was border closure, no air traffic and all tourism activities stopped completely throughout Thailand and Regional countries around Asia.

In times of uncertainty, it is especially important to have clear and frequent communications with critical stakeholders. For my role as CFO, this may mean daily communications across the executive leadership team, as well as with the board members, depending on the state of the company and cash flows. The COVID-19 crisis had also required me more frequent communications with our banks or investors, as well as with all employees.

I learned to implement an easy-to-read format or dashboard of developments to keep critical stakeholders informed and make clear which issues require immediate attention and decisions, and which ones can be postponed, will also help.

In any uncertain situation, you have to learn how to say what you need to say and say it in such a way that people know it’s not personal. When you’re confronting a crisis, you can deal with it better and with less stress if you have a culture that’s more candid.

5. What's one book that has had a?profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership

"I am just an employee" is the story of Mr. "Chumpol NaLamlieng" , former President and CEO of Siam Cement Public Company limited (SCG) . I've read this book since I first started working and had Mr. Chumpol as one of my role model for my professional career.

Mr. Chumpol's legacy is the restructure of SCG during Asia’s financial crisis from having accumulated losses of more than 50,000 million baht, with the debt-to-equity ratio increasing nearly six times returning to having maximum revenues and profits in less than three years.

The management principles of "Mr. Chumpol" are well elaborated below:

1. Current business environment changes much faster from the past. Leader must dare to decide. "Decisions can be wrong, but hesitating and taking them for granted will cause demoralization and any work will not progress."

Mr. Chumpol believes that even decision is wrong, we can still fix it but by being indecisive nothing will happen.

2. ninety-nine percent of problems in this world are easy to solve but most of business enterprises tend to make simple problems unnecessarily more difficult. Solving problems must use simple methods and common sense. More importantly every level in organization must understand the key message.

3. Leader must use the word "we" very often when accomplishing any targets in organization. As a leader, This is all about teamwork.

4. Mr. Chumpol was stuck with only one chair during his time with SCG. No matter how many promotions he received, he always used the same chair.

He said that a chair that was too high would make him float. If feet don't reach the ground , We'll fall out of our chair." It sounds like it's normal. But on the other hand, it is a philosophy of life.

Don't let your feet leave off the ground , No matter how high you are, you can still fall down.

6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young leader, what would you say to them?

Think broadly and act professionally. Every aspired young leader should remember when they join a company that their purpose is not only to fulfil their job description like a machine, but to be proactive and move the business forward in everything they do.

The difference is that while focusing on your own working area whenever you meet obstacles or challenges, you should think broadly to see what is the best solution for the company, instead of what is best for your own work or the constraints of a certain policy. You carefully evaluate the different options and the risks attached, and propose what is best for the company.

Even if you are still young and junior, if you want to be a supervisor or senior manager or whatever your objective, you have to try to think from your superiors' perspective. What your manager's standpoint would be, what would they consider, what solution they expect.

You need to keep practice on making proposals and offering solutions (not the problems), meaning you have to act professionally?within the scope of your role, this means “communication skill” plays a big part.?

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a leader, so far??

One of my favorite leadership lessons comes from my former boss who championed the idea “You are only as good as your team.” ?He said that a good leader trusts their team. They build teams that can deliver what’s needed to meet the company’s objectives and goals without having to micromanage.

I have learnt from my experiences that giving team members empowerment and trust is hugely impactful and often yield in better creativity, innovation, and results.

When things don’t go right, take the blame.?And when things go right, give the credit. When things don’t go right, make sure that people know it’s ok.